TERRAFORMING TERRA
We discuss and comment on the role agriculture will play in the containment of the CO2 problem and address protocols for terraforming the planet Earth.
A model farm template is imagined as the central methodology. A broad range of timely science news and other topics of interest are commented on.

Saturday, February 25, 2017

Brazilian berry extract stops a superbug in its tracks

What this berry does is disarm the bug making it harmless while not allowing its defenses to improve. A great idea that we hope applies to a broader spectrum of disease agencies.

This also suggests that a simple natural extract can be valuable. i would also mix it with honey as a wound dressing. we could win one here.

Superbugs are on the rise, with a UK government report last year warning that they could kill 10 million people a year by 2050. Scientists have unearthed what could be a valuable weapon on one of the key frontiers, discovering an extract from the Brazilian peppertree, an invasive weed found commonly across Florida, that can neutralize a dangerous antibiotic-resistant staph bacteria called Staphylococcus auereus.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus auereus is a type of staph bacteria that has become resistant to many common antibiotics. Once mostly limited to nursing homes and hospitals, it has more recently spread to more common places like schools and gyms, where it can cause skin infections, bloodstream infections, sepsis and death.

The news isn't all bad on the MRSA front. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that the percentage of Staphylococcus auereus resistant to the antibiotic methicillin has decreased significantly in recent years, as have the number of life-threatening MRSA infections in healthcare settings, resulting in 9,000 fewer deaths in hospital patients in 2011 than in 2005.

But still, there is work to be done, and we have seen researchers make some promising strides in the battle against MRSA. Biodegradable polymers, bacteria found in the honey stomach of bees and a sea sponge-derived compound that killed 98 percent of MRSA cells in testing have all shown great potential, and now scientists at Florida's Emory University have opened up another avenue of attack.

"Traditional healers in the Amazon have used the Brazilian peppertree for hundreds of years to treat infections of the skin and soft tissues," says Cassandra Quave, an assistant professor in Emory's School of Medicine's Department of Dermatology and co-author on the study. "We pulled apart the chemical ingredients of the berries and systematically tested them against disease-causing bacteria to uncover a medicinal mechanism of this plant."

Through their work, the team demonstrated that a compound taken from the berries slowed the formation of skin lesions in MRSA-infected mice. Rather than actually killing the MRSA bacteria, the compound interferes with a gene the cells use to communicate, work together and inflict damage.

"It essentially disarms the MRSA bacteria, preventing it from excreting the toxins it uses as weapons to damage tissues," Quave says. "The body's normal immune system then stands a better chance of healing a wound."

This holds some real advantages over the heavy-handed approaches sometimes used to attack superbugs, which involved blasting them with drugs that kill them off. And kill some of them off they might, but the stronger ones that do survive pass on their genes to offspring and add fuel to the spreading wildfire that is superbug evolution.

The researchers say the compound extracted from Brazilian peppertree, which is abundant across Florida and flourishes in subtropical climates, does no harm to the skin tissues of mice or the healthy bacteria found on the skin. They're now working to confirm the safest way to use the extract to battle superbugs, and are eyeing pre-clinical trials.

"If the pre-clinical trials are successful, we will apply for an application to pursue clinical trials, under the Food and Drug Administration's botanical drug pathway," says Quave.

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Apr 2017 - 4.1 Mil Pg Views, March 2013 - Posted my paper introducing CLOUD COSMOLOGY & NEUTRAL NEUTRINO rigorously described as the SPACE TIME PENDULUM, September 2010 I am pleased to report that my essay titled A NEW METRIC WITH APPLICATIONS TO PHYSICS AND SOLVING CERTAIN HIGHER ORDERED DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS' has been published in Physics Essays(AIP) and appeared in their June 2010 quarterly. 40 years ago I took an honors degree in applied mathematics from the University of Waterloo. My interest was Relativity and my last year there saw me complete a 900 level course under Hanno Rund on his work in relativity,as well as differential geometry(pure math) and of course analysis. I continued researching new ideas and knowledge since that time and I have prepared a book for publication titled Paradigms Shift&. I maintain my blog as a day book and research tool to retain data and record impressions and interpretations on material read. Do join my blog and receive Four items of interest daily Monday through Saturday.